English

Adjective

A stereotype is a simplified and/or standardized
conception or image with specific meaning, often held in common by
people about another group. A stereotype can be a conventional and
oversimplified conception, opinion, or image, based on the
assumption that there are attributes that members of the other
group hold in common. Stereotypes are sometimes formed by a
previous illusory
correlation, a false association between two variables that are
loosely if at all correlated. Stereotypes may be positive or
negative in tone. They are typically generalizations based on
minimal or limited knowledge about a group to which the person
doing the stereotyping does not belong. Persons may be grouped
based on
racial group, ethnicity, religion, sexual
orientation, age or any
number of other categories.

Description

Stereotyping is a way of representing other
people. Stereotypes can revolve around a certain characteristic of
the group of persons to which they are assigned. The persons of
that group may even be reduced to being known and understood
through a lens based on the stereotype that results from this,
rather than being viewed as individuals. Stereotypes may refuse to
recognize a distinction between an individual and the group to
which he or she belongs. Stereotypes may represent people entirely
in terms of narrow assumptions about their biology, nationality, sexual
orientation, disability, or any other
number of categories. Stereotype maybe either positive or
negative.Stereotype may appear in media because of the base of
writers, directors, reporters, producers and editors.

Causes

Sociologist
Charles E. Hurst of the College of Wooster states that, “One reason
for stereotypes is the lack of personal, concrete familiarity that
individuals have with persons in other racial or ethnic groups.
Lack of familiarity encourages the lumping together of unknown
individuals” Groups which enjoy fewer social and economic
advantages will be stereotyped in a way which helps explain
disparities, such as lower employment rates. Although disadvantaged
group members may have greater difficulty finding a job due to
in-group favoritism, racism, and related social forces, the
disadvantaged group member is unjustifiably characterized as
'unmotivated' (he could find a job if he looked hard enough),
'unintelligent' (he's not smart enough to have that job), and
'lazy' (he would rather take hand-outs than work).

This makes it seem as if groups are very
different when in fact they may be more alike than different. For
example, among African
Americans, identity as an American citizen is a more salient
categorization than racial background; that is, African Americans
are more American than African.

Yet within American culture, Black and White
Americans are often seen as completely different groups.

For as long as there has been a human species,
individuals have been different from one another. Persons have
gravitated to groups of other persons like themselves. People
create and develop categories of qualities by which to classify the
groups; some were based on ancestry. Many of these groupings have
become the key factors in determining which groups have political,
social, and economic power in the world.

Automatic stereotype activation can be totally
involuntary, and is described as the activation of categorically
associated "nodes", according to Leopold and Brown from the Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology.

Effects, accuracy, terminology

For individual people there
can be both positive and negative effects of a stereotype which is
seen to apply to them. The overall effects of stereotyping are seen
by many to always be negative.

Some people believe that stereotypes are
generally based on actual differences. Others believe that they are
always false generalizations (by definition).

For some individual people the effects of this
might be positive or negative - a separate issue to whether they
are positive or negative for society.

Stereotypes can be self-fulfilling to at least
some extent (e.g. group 1 treats group 2 in a more hostile way
because they are afraid of the dangerous nature they are supposed
to display; people from group 2 accordingly react more
aggressively, thus confirming the stereotype) .

Stereotypes can be deeply embedded in a culture.
The term 'stereotype' is more often used once those perceived
truths are put into arguments.

There are some complicating factors which arise
when the accuracy of stereotypes is discussed. One of these is that
a factor leading to stereotyping can be the existence of a group of
people who do share a characteristic. For instance, there might be
a reasonably significant number of men working in sales roles, and
showing little integrity and honesty ('significant' in this context
does not imply a majority). This can lead to the creation of a
stereotype of a 'salesman' figure. In this limited sense it might
be seen that the stereotype is based on a real group of people
(i.e. salesmen who behave with little integrity).

Possible prejudicial effects of stereotypes are:

Justification of ill-founded prejudices or ignorance

Unwillingness to rethink one's attitudes and behavior towards
stereotyped group

Preventing some people of stereotyped groups from succeeding in
activities or fields

Often the terms ‘’stereotype’’ and ‘’prejudice’’ are confused.
Stereotypes are ‘’standardized’’ and ‘’simplified’’ conceptions of
groups, based on some prior assumptions. Stereotypes are created
based on some idea of abstract familiarity. Prejudices are more
specific - they are predispositions to differential behavior
patterns.

Role in art and culture

Stereotype is often used as a form of dramatic
shorthand for
"stock
character". Stereotypes change with time. The unwitting use of
some stereotypes appears awkward to a present-day audience which
refuses to tolerate a representation of individuals based on that
stereotype. Many other stereotypes pass unnoticed, sometimes even
by those being stereotyped. Examples of active use are found in the
work of Brecht and other dramatic styles which allow the actor to
demonstrate a character's level of role distance, thus showing the
active use. Retrospectively these stock
characters have been illuminated by the work of Brecht, Dario Fo and
Jacques
Lecoq, despite their original reference to local Italian stereotypes
in their early genesis.
Importantly in drama the actor does not create a stereotype; rather
their characterisation may be
simple in that they represent an uncritical reflection of the
stereotype, and it is this simplicity which aggravates a
present-day audience. A subtle and detailed characterisation,
especially of the commedia Dell'arte stock characters, results in a
unique and immediate performance that will be enjoyed by an
audience due to the clear active use of the characters by the
actor.

In literature and art, stereotypes are clichéd or
predictable characters or situations. Throughout history,
storytellers have drawn from stereotypical characters and
situations, in order to connect the audience with new tales
immediately. Sometimes such stereotypes can be sophisticated, such
as Shakespeare's
Shylock in
The Merchant of Venice. Arguably a stereotype that becomes complex
and sophisticated ceases to be a stereotype per se by its unique
characterisation. Thus while Shylock remains
politically unstable in being a stereotypical Jew, the subject of
prejudicial derision
in Shakespeare's
era, his many other detailed features raise him above a simple
stereotype and into a unique character, worthy of modern
performance. Simply because a feature of a character can be
categorized as being typical does not make the entire character a
stereotype.

Despite their proximity in etymological roots,
cliché and stereotype are not used synonymously in cultural
spheres. For example a cliché is a high criticism in narratology where genre and categorization
automatically associates a story within its recognizable group.
Labeling a situation or character in a story as typical suggests it
is fitting for its genre
or category.
Whereas declaring that a storyteller has relied on cliché is to
pejoratively observe a simplicity and lack of originality in the
tale. To criticize Ian Fleming
for a stereotypically unlikely escape for James Bond
would be understood by the reader or listener, but it would be more
appropriately criticized as a cliché in that it is overused and
reproduced. Narrativegenre relies heavily on
typical features to remain recognizable and generate meaning in the
reader/viewer.

In movies and TV the halo effect is often used.
This is when, for example, attractive men and women are assumed to
be happier, stronger, nicer people, explained by Greenwald and
Banaji from Psychological Review.

Racial and ethnic stereotyping

Black stereotypes

Early stereotypes

The movie Birth
of a Nation questioned whether or not Black people were fit to
run for governmental offices or vote. Secretary
of StateJohn C.
Calhoun arguing for the extension of slavery in 1844 said "Here
(scientific confirmation) is proof of the necessity of slavery. The
African is incapable of self-care and sinks into lunacy under the
burden of freedom. It is a mercy to give him the guardianship and
protection from mental death."

Even after slavery ended the intellectual
capacity of Black people was still frequently questioned. Lewis
Terman wrote in The measurement of intelligence in 1916 "(Black and
other ethnic minority children) are uneducable beyond the nearest
rudiments of training. No amount of school instruction will ever
make them intelligent voters or capable citizens in the sense of
the world…their dullness seems to be racial, or at least inherent
in the family stock from which they come…Children of this group
should be segregated in special classes and be given instruction
which is concrete and practical. They cannot master abstractions,
but they can be made efficient workers…There is no possibility at
present of convincing society that they should not be allowed to
reproduce, although from a eugenic point of view they constitute a
grave problem because of their unusual prolific breeding."

Modern stereotypes

Patricia J. Williams, writer for
The
Nation, said this of Jar Jar
Binks, a character from the 2002 Star Wars film:
"...intentionally or not, Jar Jar's pratfalls and high jinks borrow
heavily from the genre of minstrelsy. Despite the amphibian get-up,
his manchild-like idiocy is imported directly from the days of
Amos
'N' Andy." Many aspects of Jar Jar's character are believed to
be highly reminiscent of the archetypes portrayed in blackfaceminstrelsy.

According to Robert M. Entman and Andrew Rojecki,
authors of the The Black Image in the White Mind, in television and
film Black characters are less likely to be "the intellectual
drivers of its problem solving." In one example, a study of the
portrayal of race, ethnicity and nationality in televised sporting
events by journalist Derrick Jackson in 1989 showed that blacks
were more likely than Whites to be described in demeaning
intellectual terms. Political activist and one-time presidential
candidate Rev.
Jesse Jackson said in 1985 that the news media portray blacks
as less intelligent than we are. Film director Spike Lee
explains that these images have negative impacts. "In my
neighborhood, we looked up to athletes, guys who got the ladies,
and intelligent people," said Lee.

Even so-called positive images of Black people
can lead to stereotypes about intelligence. In Darwin's Athletes:
how sport has damaged Black America and preserved the myth of race,
John
Hoberman writes that the prominence of African-American
athletes encourages a de-emphasis on academic achievement in black
communities. In a 1997 study on racial stereotypes in sports,
participants were shown a photograph of a white or a black
basketball player. They then listened to a recorded radio broadcast
of a basketball game. White photographs were rated as exhibiting
significantly more intelligence in the way they played the game,
even though the radio broadcast and target player represented by
the photograph were the same throughout the trial. Several other
authors have said that sports coverage that highlights 'natural
black athleticism' has the effect of suggesting white superiority
in other areas, such as intelligence.

History of ethnic stereotypes in the United States

The
stratification and separation of groups, especially racial
minorities, in the United States began in the nation’s earliest
years of colonization. With the colonists’ first contact with the
Native Americans, the stereotype of “the savage” was born. The
idea of a “savage” was the framework the colonists used to judge
and interpret the Native Americans .

The early Anglo-Saxon colonists had a very
different relationship with the first African
Americans in the United States than they did with the Native
Americans. Their initial thoughts were shaped by popular “English
views of Blacks as evil, animalistic, uncivilized, and
un-Christian”

English stereotypes

The English
people are stereotyped as inordinately proper, prudish, and
stiff and as having bad teeth. Characters in historical movies
often have English accents even when the setting has nothing to do
with England. Upper-class characters are also often given English
accents. In more recent times, many movie villains, including
Jafar
from Aladdin,
Benedict from Last
Action Hero movie, Scar
from The Lion
King, and Hannibal
Lecter from
The Silence of the Lambs, have all been portrayed by British
actors or given English accents.

Notably, in Disney films from the 1990s onward,
English accents are generally employed to serve one of two
purposes: slapstick comedy or evil genius. Examples include Aladdin
(the Sultan and Jafar, respectively), The Lion King (Zazu and Scar,
respectively),
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Victor the Gargoyle and Frollo,
respectively), and Pocahontas
(Wiggins and Ratcliffe, respectively, both of whom happen to be
played by the same actor, American David
Ogden Stiers).

White American stereotypes

Especially in European countries,
Americans are stereotyped as brash, ignorant, self-important,
unintelligent and obese. This could be due to perception of the
American diet, such is the popularity and global spread of American
fast
food franchises such as McDonald's and
Burger
King, which has fueled America's obesity crisis.

There are many examples throughout the media, but
a classic example is Homer
Simpson, the obese, lazy and dim-witted middle American from
the cartoon, The
Simpsons. The show itself parodies many aspects of American
life, culture and society.

Irish stereotypes

Although the Irish, Germans, French, etc
are considered ethnic groups today, the common term in the 19th
century was "race". Much was made of Celtic versus Anglo-Saxon
racial characteristics, regarding historic identity and behavior
patterns. An analysis of nineteenth-century British attitudes by
Mary J.
Hickman and Bronwen Walter wrote that the 'Irish Catholic' was
one viewed as an "other,"
or a different race in the construction of the British nationalist
myth [of course this view no longer exists in any way, the Irish
are now seen as fellow inhabitants of the British Isles]. Likewise
the Irish considered the English "other" and fought hard to break
away and create their own homeland, which they finally did in the
1920s.

Jewish stereotypes

Modern European antisemitism has its
origin in 19th century theories—now mostly considered as pseudo-scientific—that
said that the Semitic peoples, including the Jews, are entirely
different from the Aryan, or Indo-European,
populations, and that they can never be amalgamated with them. In
this view, Jews are not opposed on account of their religion, but on account of
their supposed hereditary or genetic
racial characteristics including: greed, a special aptitude for
money-making and low cunning.

In early films such as Cohen's Advertising Scheme
(1904, silent) stereotyped Jews as "scheming merchants"

To this day Jewish people are sometimes
stereotyped in media as being intellectually gifted, and focused on
money.

Sex and gender stereotyping

Sex and gender stereotyping
could be classified as a single idea. Although sex is usually
defined as a person's biological traits, gender is defined as how a
person identifies themselves to the world. Gender relates to those
affectations that are attributed to men and those affectations that
are attributed to women. It is important to understand that in this
discussion it requires a social structure that tends to enforce a
binary sex and gender role based on a persons biological
characteristics.

Gender stereotypes are those ideas, usually
imposed by society of what is expected of men and women in the
social structure. In most modern Western cultures, men are expected
to be assertive, risk-taking, tough, unfeeling, insensitive,
combative, the owner or ruler of the home, whereas women are
expected to be the nurturers, caregivers, demure, polite, the
family homemaker.

Etymology

The word stereotype was invented by Firmin Didot
in the world of printing; it was originally a
duplicate impression of an original typographical element, used
for printing instead of
the original. American journalist Walter
Lippmann coined the metaphor, calling a stereotype a "picture
in our heads" saying "Whether right or wrong, ...imagination is
shaped by the pictures seen... Consequently, they lead to
stereotypes that are hard to shake." (Public
Opinion, 1922, 95-156). In fact, cliché and stereotype were
both originally printers' words, and in their literal printers'
meanings were synonymous. Specifically, cliché was a French word
for the printing surface for a stereotype.

The first reference to "stereotype", in its
modern, English use was in 1850, in the noun, meaning "image
perpetuated without change".

A Galleryblog on
stereotypes A blog dedicated to the study of stereotypes in
American mass culture; in particular, stereotypes of Latinas/os,
Mexicans, and other Hispanic "types." The blog is a continuation of
a discussion in Tex(t)-Mex
--a University of Texas Press book (2007).